Monitoring poverty and social exclusion 2013

This annual report by the New Policy Institute gives a comprehensive picture of poverty in the UK, featuring analysis of low income, unemployment, low pay, homelessness and ill health.

A focus on the geographical distribution of disadvantage reveals that national averages mask huge variations between areas in unemployment, educational achievement, and life expectancy.

The research shows that:

more than half of the 13 million people living in poverty in the UK in 2011/12 were in a working family;

while the labour market has shown signs of revival in the last year, the number of people in low-paid jobs has risen and average incomes have fallen – around five million people are paid below the living wage;

there is substantial movement in and out of work – 4.8 million different people have claimed Jobseeker’s Allowance in the last two years;

the proportion of pensioners in poverty is at its lowest for almost 30 years, but the proportion of working-age adults without children in poverty is the highest on record.